The Hidden Sand Village was going through hardships, Gaara had been taken, Kankuro had been poisoned, a large part of the village was destroyed, and many ninjas had died, all caused by one man.
The village elders, in a panic, quickly summoned Chiyo and Ebizo.
Both were practically retired and living in isolation, especially after Gaara became the fully 'powerful Kage', so neither of them wanted to go out, that is, until the information Kankuro brought proved useful, Sasori was among the attackers.
Chiyo finally agreed to move.
The council quickly voted, they had no way to recover Gaara. The village was severely lacking in top-tier fighting power, Chiyo being the strongest at present, but she was old.
Thus, the decision to quickly request assistance from the allies was made.
In another timeline, the allies would be Konoha, in this timeline, the relationship between Konoha and Suna was not good, so naturally, they asked Oto for help.
The fastest ninjas were chosen to go straight to Otogakure to ask for help in retrieving Gaara.
The group was extremely fast, taking only half a day to reach Otogakure.
The exhausted group didn't want to rest and were quickly taken to Jugo's office. Jugo had already been notified and was present, seated in his chair, with Konan behind him as he stroked Yugito in his arms.
Yugito closed her eyes and pretended not to feel anything. She had gone through many emotional phases during this period, but currently she had reached acceptance. She hadn't given up on returning to being human, but she had accepted that she couldn't leave that form without Jugo's permission, so she was playing the 'good cat'.
Although humiliating, at that point she no longer had a choice, she could only swallow her pride and be caressed.
The ninjas of Suna knelt before Jugo and quickly delivered the message.
Jugo picked it up slowly and read it, well, that was expected, although he thought it sped up the event a bit, but in the end, it was still expected.
Sighing, he handed the message to Guren while thinking about who to send it to.
Guren read quickly and frowned, looking at Jugo and seeing that he was thinking. She remained silent and waited, only the sound of the heavy breathing of the Suna ninjas continued, even though they tried their best to mitigate this. They didn't dare breathe loudly for fear of disturbing Jugo and him deciding not to send help.
Jugo finally turned to Guren. -Where are those brats?
Guren knew who Jugo was talking about, she thought for a moment and said, -Sasuke is out of the village, training, but he's not far. Suigetsu and Ranmaru are out of the village too, Orochimaru gave them a mission, so they won't be back in time. Karin is with Orochimaru, researching something with him.
-Hmm... Orochimaru, that guy's been very free lately, whatever, let him go along with Sasuke and Karin.- Jugo waved his hand, sensing that this would be an interesting combination.
The Sound ninja group was very excited, thankfully, they would be sending help. Furthermore, hearing the names increased their excitement. Although Sasuke and Karin weren't very well-known, with Orochimaru leading them, they were very pleased.
Sure, Suna still had a grudge against Orochimaru over the death of the Fourth Kazekage, but so what at that point? Ninja villages have always been the kind of organization that sees pros and cons, eternal allies and enemies don't exist.
The group of ninjas from Suna were soon taken to rest, they had used all their chakra to get there, and they wouldn't have been able to keep up the return journey. An Anbu from Oto quickly went to inform Orochimaru and Karin, while another went to inform Sasuke.
It only took half an hour for the three of them to appear in front of Jugo.
Orochimaru would normally feel very unhappy being interrupted, but he's a werewolf, so when Jugo called, he was already ready for the mission.
Karin looked at Jugo with excitement, she wasn't wearing her glasses, probably thinking that would make her more attractive. Although Jugo thought she looked cuter with glasses, he didn't say anything. She wasn't an adult yet, so he ignored her as always.
Sasuke was expressionless, he had been focusing on training all this time, partly to occupy his mind, partly to avoid another of Jugo's bride recruitment campaigns.
Jugo let Guren explain, when they heard the mission, neither Orochimaru nor Sasuke cared much, but Karin was surprised by this Akatsuki that continued to act recklessly.
-Go to the Sand Village and help the rescue team. As for the Akatsuki members... you don't need to give it your all. It's better if you manage to escape. If you can't, that's okay too, just kill them.- Jugo explained.
The group was confused by Jugo's reasoning, but no one asked. The team leader was clearly Orochimaru. The man was much stronger now than in his original form, he wasn't weakened by the lack of hands, and he had also gained a powerful body and the werewolf curse. Although Sasuke was much stronger than his version at that same time, a fight between them would still be difficult to predict.
The main point was that Orochimaru had been a ninja for an extremely long time and had participated in two wars, he was a better captain when he truly deigned to assume that role, that was a fact.
When the group finally left, only Guren and Yugito in cat form remained.
-What's the point of letting this organization go time after time?- Guren finally couldn't help but ask.
Jugo smiled slightly, lifting Yugito to eye level. The cat rolled her eyes at him, but offered no resistance as Jugo rubbed his face against hers.
Guren's lips trembled, Jugo finally tired of kneading the cat and let her go, causing Yugito to jump away from him immediately, Jugo finally turned to Guren.
-Sometimes, a messy board leads to better plays.- He replied.
Guren was still confused, but in the end Jugo didn't say anything more, instead he ran his hand under her skirt, making Guren bite her lip in irritation and excitement. She gestured for the Anbu group to leave and Yugito was thrown out of the room, although she was still restricted from leaving the building, at least she didn't have to stay there watching Jugo and Guren doing embarrassing things.